The maternal management of children, in health and diseaseBull, Thomas
Science
The maternal management of children, in health and disease
Bull, Thomas
Child care
During teething the mother must be especially watchful, for it is at
this time that the disease so commonly appears; the irritation produced
by this process being a frequent exciting cause. Every thing,
therefore, that will tend to allay excitement of the system, must be
strictly enforced, as well as all causes avoided, which would produce
derangement of the stomach and bowels. The head should be kept cool.
For this purpose it must be sponged night and morning throughout the
whole period of teething; a horse-hair pillow used in the cot; and
nothing but a light straw hat should be worn, except in winter, The
diet should be moderate, and carefully regulated after leaving the
breast, and the child should be as much as possible in the open air.
The mouth must be occasionally examined, and if the gums become hot or
distended, they must be scarified or lanced, as may be advised. If the
parent finds at any time an unusual heat about the head, the medical
man must be at once consulted; or if there is watchfulness or
indisposition to sleep at the proper periods, or frequent startings in
the sleep, irritability of temper, and much crying, danger should be
apprehended, and prompt and judicious means employed.
Eruptions about the head, or sores behind the ears, discharging more
or less, will sometimes make their appearance just before the cutting
of a tooth, and disappear after it is cut; or it will sometimes happen
that, if not interfered with, they will continue throughout the whole
period of dentition. Great caution should always be exercised in
reference to these eruptions in all children; and when there is a
predisposition to water in the head, it is dangerous to interfere with
them at all, except they run to such an extent as to become very
troublesome. The sudden healing of these cutaneous affections has again
and again been followed by head-disease. They are unsightly in the
eyes of a parent, but it must be recollected that they render the
situation of such children much more safe; and when teething is
completed they will generally disappear spontaneously; or, if they
should not, they will readily do so by proper medical treatment. I have
no doubt that many a child's life has been saved by the appearance and
continuance of these eruptions; and so sensible are medical men of the
benefit derived from them, that in individuals in whom they do not
appear, and in whose family there exists a predisposition to the
disease now under our consideration, an issue or seton, in the arm or
neck, has sometimes been made, and had a remarkable influence in
warding off this affection. Dr. Cheyne refers to the circumstance of
ten children in one family having died of this disease; the eleventh,
for whom this measure was employed, having been preserved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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